Bawaslu Urges Students to Become Participatory Election Supervisors
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Puadi, a member of Indonesia’s Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), has called on university students to be more than just social media users, urging them to play an active role in building a healthy democracy by improving digital literacy, countering the spread of hoaxes, and monitoring the conduct of elections.
“Students are not merely social media users. We hope they can act as agents of digital literacy, agents of democracy, participatory monitors, and innovators at once — creating various digital solutions for election oversight in the future,” said Puadi at the opening of the Bawaslu Campus Connect: Digital Generation, Transparent Democracy event at the Faculty of Social and Legal Sciences, Jakarta State University (UNJ), Jakarta, on Wednesday.
Puadi said Bawaslu is partnering with universities to build broader cooperation with the academic community while encouraging greater involvement of young people in election supervision.
He noted there are many ways students can contribute to democratic oversight, including refraining from spreading hoaxes, carrying out fact-checking, reporting suspected electoral violations to Bawaslu, and conducting election-based research.
In addition, Bawaslu is opening opportunities for students to become directly involved as election organisers at various levels, from the kelurahan (urban village) and kecamatan (district) levels up to the regency and municipal levels.
“Going forward, many UNJ students could be recruited as organisers, whether at the kelurahan, kecamatan, or regency/municipal level. This is part of participation,” he said.
Furthermore, Puadi argued that the quality of Indonesia’s democracy in the future will be determined not only by regulation and technological progress, but also by the quality of its younger generation.
“I believe the quality of Indonesia’s democracy in the future will not be determined solely by regulation or technology. More importantly, it depends on the quality of its young generation,” said Puadi.
He expressed hope that through the Bawaslu Campus Connect programme, a generation of young people will emerge who are technologically literate, possess integrity and compassion, and feel a sense of responsibility for safeguarding Indonesia’s democracy.